Interapt Attends Google I/O 2015: Key Takeaways

If you spent any time on social media last week, you likely saw tech journalists posting about Googles latest and greatest developments revealed at its annual developer conference, known as Google I/O. Interapts own Ankur Gopal (CEO) and Mike Nguyen (Tech Lead) were in attendance, and besides enjoying the Google swag (including brand new Nexus 9 tablets), we walked away from the event with a few takeaways you might be interested to hear:

Google Took the Lead in the Race to Zero

Tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have been in a race to zero to grab market share by charging customers less and less for cloud services, with the goal to eventually offer cloud services for freewhich is just what Google did when it announced Google Photos at I/O. Any and all users of Google Photos will have unlimited cloud storage, but that has been offered before–what ultimately trumps existing services from Amazon and Microsoft will be that its free of charge (Microsoft came with an Office 365 subscription) and available on all Android and iOS devices (over 90% of smartphones, whereas Amazons was limited to their compatible devices).

Googles New and Exciting Projects Are Less Moonshot, More Pragmatic

Though Google has come to be known for its moonshots (Glass, self-driving cars, etc.), years later we have yet to see most of those products in mainstream, everyday use; to the contrary, the projects announced at this years I/O are far more likely to be in the market soon, perhaps many within the year. Project Jacquard sees Google partnering with Levis to create truly wearable technology, with code woven directly into wearable fibers themselves; Project Vault and Project Abacus focus on enhanced security and privacy that combine tech were already used to (microSD cards, fingerprint touch ID, etc) with advanced new platforms to make them more feasible and ubiquitous; even Project Loon, though labeled a moonshot by Google X labs, is now closer to a realized platform that delivers internet to the world, something anyone would agree as being fundamental to growing the world’s awareness and, by consequence, more compassion and understanding between nations.

Google Now On Tap will Change Everything for the App Economy

Most Android users are familiar with Google Now, but Googles announcement of Now On Tap might be one of its biggest game-changers to date. Why? Because apps have always suffered from being closed-off experiences, and Google had yet to leverage its considerable search-engine and knowledge-base capabilities (which made Google what it is today) in an app experience on phones and tabletsuntil now. Or we should say, until Now On Tap, which layers contextual search tools on top of your mobile app experience, giving you ability to search, find relevant contenteven in other appsin the moment, without breaking your app session. This will fundamentally change our expectations when using multiple apps with devicesa scenario that will only become more and more common in a world oriented around the Internet of Things.

Google Events Are Awesome Fun

On top of being surrounded by creative, ambitious, and talented minds, we realized Google events are also just plain fun, and the excitement in the air is infectious. You can read some of our tweets about the experience on Interapt’s Twitter, and check a photo of Ankur and Mike in an epic light saber duel on our Instagram page. This wasnt our first trip to Google (read about our visit in February on LinkedIn), and it definitely wont be our last.